Sir Hulway Barrack-Jones is coming to this site. Here's a picture of him in happier times. I have agreed to allow him to use this site to promote his new show The Universial Actor. Sir Hulway (pronounced Hallway) is the eternal actor  who has been with us for all time. He has a wealth of stories, a confidence much above his capabiltiities and the ability to comment on the past, present and future of our great industry without worrying too much about detail. His first theatrical outing was Calvary and his most recent included Hairspray. He says the simularities were striking. This will become his site in the new week, and thereafter, and he will offer a smorgasbord of offerings which he one day hopes to shape into something which sounds remotely intelligent. Between times he has agreed to comment on local productions in his own distinctive style.

Theatre: Going To-and-Fro Between the Fo and Flu.

Carol Burns as Elizabeth points the way to the 16th Century satirical tradition known as Commedia dell'arte

Elizabeth almost by chance a woman. Stars Carol Burns, Eugene Gilfedder, SarahKennedy, Jason Klarwein, Dash Kruck, John Rodgers.  Directed by Wesley Enoch. Queensland Theatre Company. Powerhouse. Continues till June 24.

It has been more than a week since my last posting and, thanks to a bout of

the flue, I am now in catch-up mode as I try to make-up for lost time.

However, the one thing about life is that it doesn’t stand still for anyone – not even royalty as I noticed the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert went ahead as Prince Phillip was carted off to hospital – so it’s up to us all to keep dancing as fast as we can for as long as we can.

Last week I was talking about Opera Australia staging The Magic Flue – and describing it as a tad highbrow – and this week it might appear, at first, that I have gone a little lowbrow with Dario Fo.

The Italian Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is still rattling around the planet somewhere, was born March 24, 1926, which makes him a month older then the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II.

While shows such as Elizabeth, almost by chance a woman, appear vulgar, outspoken and absurdist, they are actually well crafted examples of a satirical theatre tradition that goes back centuries.

Elizabeth, which features esteemed British actress Carols Burns in the title role and centres on England’s Elizabeth I, affectionately known as Good Queen Bess, draws on the Italian Commedia dell’arte as a starting point.

One only has to look at Fo’s history – within the theatre and elsewhere – to see that his life has been a rich political experience beginning with his work with his father in the anti-fascist Resistance in World War II.

It would seem - and my confirming source is that sometimes vulnerable cyber reference Wikipedia -  Fo and Son were instrumental in helping various individuals, including allied soldiers and Jewish scientists, escape to Switzerland.

Even in the post war era, Fo was walking a thin line turning Biblical stories into political satire – an extreme thing to do in Catholic Italy –  writing plays from the 1950s.

However, I was first introduced to his work decades later in Brisbane.

For a while in the 1980s,  Fo’s work was extremely popular with the TN Company, which at that time was a major ‘serious’ dramatic force within the Brisbane arts community.

I recall productions of Raspberries and Trumpets and the Accidental Death of an Anarchist among others. His most successful play, Buffo, translated into 30 languages, never made Brisbane to my knowledge.

Naturally, serious theatre students have always embraced the Commedia dell’arte, with its references to stock characters, social and political satire, improvisation and a chance to connect with western theatre’s first tentative professional outing.

What I particularly liked about this revamped version of Fo, freely adapted and translated by Luke Devenish and Louise Fox, is the language plucked from the past and made into contemporary relevance.

However, I do concede that the two hour show –  revolving around absurdist goings on between Elizabeth and her various courtiers whom in real life would have been flung (or worse) into the tower – does wear a trifle thin in the narrative department.

The basic idea is that Elizabeth, whom Flo asserts was no virgin but rather waiting for her lover, the  treacherous Earl of Essex, is old and dying and doing it in a loud and boisterous, bawdy way.

(What a way to go if you still have the strength)

Throw in William Shakespeare (whom the Queen believes is really writing about her), a wordy bureaucrat, a patronising maid, a transvestite and a tiresome boy and you’re got a spicy mix of seemingly outrageous nonsense.

But the language – and some notable theatrical antics from the likes of Carol Burns, Dash Kruck Eugene Gilfedder, Sarah Kennedy and Jason Klarwein along with musical help and added contributions from John Rodgers  – made it first brilliant, then bearable and then, well, it’s time to go.

The last 15 minutes are a bit wearisome.

There’s been a bit of twitter chatter lately – believe it or not – about the viability of political satire, but I reckon, like all forms of theatre, it has its place.

Like most things in life, as John Lennon once wrote, whatever gets you through the night.

I was brought up in a British satirical tradition and recall, as a young man, dipping into a broad range of absurd comic traditions including playwright NF Simpson,  radio’s The Goons and later TV’s Monty Python Flying Circus.

I think the British tradition was more easy-going, more socially-driven and less a reaction to politics as, I believe, the country in the later part of the 20^th century displayed an even political temper.

Of course, individuals who believe they were the victims of injustice would disagree with that point of view, but once again it falls back on personal experience.

For once, I haven’t come across any reviews of Elizabeth, which I would particularly recommend, but then I haven’t been looking too closely.

However, those looking for a review in a sentence – they have their place as well – might describe it as Ab Fab meets Black Adder with a dash of the Goons and Monty Python (all English comic references, I know) thrown in for good measure.

Opera Australia: Right, Everyone Join In On The Chorus.



Milica Illic (left) as Queen of the Night and Taryn Fiebig as Pamina in The Magic Flute. Photo Justin Nicholas.


I remember an opera comedienne who would hit a high note, then catch her breath and shout at the audience, ‘come on everyone join in on the chorus,’ or something to that effect.

There’s something about opera with its divas, unlikely overweight soprano and tenor lovers, stodgy performances and general pomposity, which encourages the spoof, the send-up and a certain amount of derision.

Or at least that used to be the case, when opera was at the top of the mountain of high art and sponsors and supporters were perceived to be an elite group of precious patrons, but the world is changing.

Nowadays, a new wave of artistic directors, working with theatrically aware directors, is bringing the art form from  those rarified peaks of artistic endeavor and into the people’s paddock.

In short, OA aspires to live in the love of the common people.

There was nowhere that was more obvious then in Brisbane the past couple of weeks, when audiences were treated to Opera Australia’s two most recent success stories.

OA’s artistic director, Lyndon Terracini, is bringing the company back to the Queensland capital for the time first in more than two decades – the last visit was 1988 – with two state-of-art productions designed with mainstream appeal in mind.

The key to the productions’ success is as much in the direction as the versatility of the performers, who can sing as well as act, dance and in some cases engage in breathtaking gymnastics.

I am talking about ‘directing stars’ from the world stage in the shape of The Lion King’s Julie Taymor and Australia’s own behind-the-camera matinee idol Baz Luhrmann. 

Today old Alfred Hitchcok would have had to share the spotlight among the living stars of the director's chair.

The first in this double-header was a completely overhauled Mozart classic, The Magic Flute, which was trimmed down to two hours – with interval – and could easily hold its own in the highly competitive Broadway market place.

This magical piece of spin, which saw Mozart’s 1791 masterpiece morph into a slice of family entertainment which would look quite comfortable next to The Lion King or even Mary Poppins, was the brainchild of Julie Taymor (pictured).

The work came to life at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and was given its Australian renaissance by Matthew Barclay and as they say in the ‘op-biz’ it’s sure to irritate the purists.

This work is a theatrical cavalcade of colour, whimsy and joy as the troupe winds its way through a shortened version of Mozart’s mysterious work with its links to Masonic traditions.

Julie Taymor is well equipped to create this achievement as she has what cricket followers call, ‘ the runs on the board’,  with The Lion King breaking records at the Broadway box office, to the tune of more than $853 million, and now the seventh most successful show on Broadway.

(The most successful is still The Phantom of the Opera.)

The director, who also brought us The Beatles inspired movie love story, Across the Universe, also has a swag of awards including Tony Awards for direction and costume design with The Lion King.

While The Magic Flute runs a crisp and to-the-point 120 minutes, Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Summer Night’s Dream takes a more meandering route.

The show runs for more than three hours – with two intervals – but once again the cast demonstrates a broad sweep of performance skills.

Baz Luhrmann (pictured), who set his Dream in India around 1923, coaxed some wonderful acting performances out of his singing cast and draped his production in eye-catching fashion both in the set and costume departments.

The designers were Bill Marron and his wife and long-term professional partner Catherin Martin.

Once again stage and film director, Baz Luhrmann, is the very model of a modern operatic practitioner and brings a great sense of skill, crafts and originality to the medium.

His big screen credits, for those who need reminding, include Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge and Australia, but he’s also had a good track record with the OA.

His La Boheme on Broadway back in 2002 won three Tony Awards.

The OA is back in Brisbane with a bang.

The double header season runs until Friday and Saturday (June 8 and 9) but there’s talk of more to come.

Here’s a sample from A Midsummer Night’s Dream http://vimeo.com/9542385

A scene from the Dream. Photo Branco Garcia